APOPLEXY AND PARALYSIS. 521 
a drug which invariably enables us to remove the spasm for a time, and 
if it does nothing more, it gives room for other remedies to act and relieve 
the patient from the horrible tortures which are occasioned by the spasm, 
while it also allows the muscular and nervous powers to be recruited. 
When, therefore, a case of tetanus occurs in a horse of any value, an 
apparatus for applying chloroform (described under the chapter on Opera- 
tions) should be procured, and the animal at once placed under its 
influence. This done, the whole length of the spine should be blistered 
with tincture of cantharides, and an active aperient should be given, con- 
sisting, if practicable, of a pint of castor oil, and six or eight drops of 
eroton oil. This may be pumped down the throat by the usual syringe 
and tube, if the front teeth can be separated ; but if this cannot be done, 
some solid cathartic must be selected, though there is often as much 
difficulty in forcing a ball down as in passing an elastic tube. Failing in 
either of these, two drachms of calomel, and the same quantity of tartar 
emetic should be slightly damped, and placed in the mouth as far back as 
possible, in the hope that they may be gradually swallowed ; the bowels 
should be raked, and copious injections of castor oil and turpentine, mixed 
with several quarts of gruel, should be thrown up. If these remedies 
fail, nature must be left to her own resources, and they will sometimes be 
found equal to the task, for many cases have recovered after having been 
given up as beyond the reach of our art. Opium, henbane, digitalis, 
hellebore, and a host of other drugs have been tried, sometimes with, and 
sometimes without, success, and perhaps it is worth while, after the bowels 
have been well relieved, to give a full dose of one or other of these 
powerful remedies, such as two drachms of solid opium; but I confess 
that I think little reliance is to be placed on them, and I prefer the 
adoption of chloroform every six hours, continued for about two or three 
hours and gradually withdrawn, leaving the cure to the action of the 
blister and purgatives. 
APOPLEXY AND PARALYSIS. 
UsvuaL.y these are only different degrees of the s me disease, but there 
are exceptions in which the latter is produced by some chronic affection 
of the spinal cord or brain. As a rule both depenc upon pressure made 
on the brain by an overloaded state of the vessels, commonly known as 
congestion, or by extravasation of blood, in which it escapes from them. 
APOPLEXY, known among writers of the old school as sleepy staggers, is 
not often met with in the present day, owing to the improvement in the 
management of our stables, and specially to their better ventilation. It 
is marked by great sleepiness, from which the horse can be with difficulty 
roused, soon going on to absolute unconsciousness, attended by a slow 
snoring respiration, and speedily followed by death. The only treatment 
likely to be successful is copious bleeding, purgation, and blisters to the 
head and neck. 
Paratysis is marked by a loss of power over the muscles of a part, and 
may be confined to one limb or organ or extend to more. It is a symptom 
of pressure on, or disorganisation of, some part of the nervous system, and 
must be considered as such, and not as a disease of the affected muscles. 
Thus it requires a knowledge of anatomy to trace it to its seat, without 
which its treatment would be conducted on false principles. By far the 
most common form of paralysis is hemiplegia, or paralysis of the muscles 
of the hinder extremities and loins, generally arising from an injury to 
